Word on the Street: New Fresno eyeglass retailer | The Fresno Bee

A small but fast-growing Florida-based eyeglass retailer has opened its newest store in Fresno.

Stanton Optical has 21 stores nationwide and recently opened its latest store at 7031 N. Blackstone Ave., near Herndon.

The store provides a full-range of services, such as eye exams, and it has 5,000 eyeglass frames from which to choose.

Stanton opened its first California store in Modesto last year. In the past six months, it has opened stores in Fresno, Visalia, Sacramento and Roseville.

By February, the company expects to open stores in Citrus Heights and Stockton.

Dawn Douros, general manager of Stanton's new Fresno store, said the company can compete with other players in the industry such as LensCrafters and Eyeglass World.

"When people come in here, they like the experience and the service," Douros said. "And we are doing very well. We broke company records for our first week of sales."

Propane purchase

Ferrellgas Partners L.P., a national propane gas company based in Kansas, recently bought Kings River Propane, a local independent company that has locations in Reedley and Clovis.

Kings River Propane serves commercial, agricultural and residential customers throughout eastern Fresno and Madera counties and northern Kings and Tulare counties. It was owned by Kenneth and Suzan Blair of Reedley. The company was established in 1992 and had remained family-owned until its sale to Ferrellgas.

Ferrellgas is one of the largest propane retailers in the U.S., with operations in all 50 states as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

The publicly traded company includes Blue Rhino, which sells propane in pre-filled tanks that can be exchanged when they are empty.

Since Ferrellgas was founded more than 70 years ago, it has grown through about 225 acquisitions of other companies.

New showroom

The owners of Mathews Harley Davidson plan to build a new showroom at the store's downtown Fresno location.

The new 7,300-square-foot building will give the dealership more space to display motorcycles. The 57-year-old dealership has been on Blackstone Avenue near Highway 180 since 1961.

"We've been crowded for years, and our customers deserve to have a nicer showroom floor to walk through," said Cara Mathews, part of the Mathews family.

The building will include a collection of 15 historic Harley Davidson motorcycles dating back to 1917.

Work was expected to start this weekend and take about a year to finish.